1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods for the control of obesity, overweight, and eating disorders, including anorexia, bulimia, and compulsive overeating. In particular, the invention relates to methods for sensing the quantity of food consumed and/or the monitoring of various physiological changes during food ingestion and digestion, with the monitored data being presented visually or through auditory means or other sensations to a person who is participating in a program of treatment involving voluntary limitation of dietary intake and/or behavior modification.
2. State of the Art
Obesity has been treated in many ways, with the overall goal being to reduce ingestion below energy expenditure so as to result in a weight loss. Energy expenditure is increased by physical activity increases, and the physical activity further results in an increase in metabolic rate lasting beyond the period of exercise. Energy intake is reduced through dietary restriction or other means. Numerous theories exist regarding various topics which are believed to influence body weight, such as genetics, fat cell number behavior, and developmental psychology. Finally systems theory has also been used to partially account for difficulties with overweight, obesity, and eating disorders.
Currently used treatments for obesity and overeating include psychological interventions, dietetics, exercise, gastric balloons, stomach staping, jaw wiring, surgery, drugs and behavior modifications. An important of the psychological interventions may also include assessment and treatment of body image. Behavior modification, including assessment and treatment of body image, is a most effective treatment when combined with diet and exercise.
Behavior modification in its broadest sense includes several basic routines. With respect to diet, both portion size and type of food ingested is controlled. Behavior surrounding eating, from shopping, to the time, place and method of eating, is controlled. Cognitive restructuring is directed at changing attitudes and maladaptive beliefs about the self, food, and eating. Increased physical activity is encouraged, and psychotherapy is used to support behaviour change and/or induce emotional change and understanding. Body image is frequently assessed, and education is used through the process, including significant dietetic, medical, and psychological information.
Biofeedback has only little been used in treatment of eating behavior, and then only in the most elemental form. Self monitoring, which is a primitive form of biofeedback, is a mainstay of behavior modification. Patients on diets are encouraged to not wear loose-fitting clothing, and occasionally it is recommended that cords be put around the patients abdomen to detect increasing or decreasing girth. Weighing on a scale is another elemental form of biofeedback. More developed forms of biofeedback have been used in other areas of medical treatment but not for the treatment of overeating and obesity. For example, biofeedback or psychotherapeutic treatment have been suggested for controlling physiological or psychophysiological variables not ordinarily sensed by individuals.
It has also been recognized that many overeaters confuse emotional and other cues for hunger and eat because of anxiety or other emotional states. Some treatment programs have patients become hungry and then eat small amounts of food in a controlled setting in an effort to detect feelings of fullness or the effects of food entering the stomach and to differentiate these sensations from the various forms of emotional tension which may also coincidentally be present. The attempt is made to get overeaters to pay attention to bodily signals as opposed to emotions as cues to eat.